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UPDATE: SEN. LARRY CRAIG A NO-SHOW AS SENATE
RECONVENES -- Spokesperson says Craig spending
week in Idaho working on spending bills for
veterans and other programs.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Background on Craig's resignation with backlinks is
here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfSEP07/nf090107-11.htm
For more on Sen. Larry Craig, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org
/sessearch.php?q=larry
+craig&op=ph
Story here...
http://ap.google.com/
article/ALeqM5hpkuFVVbw1
dJCo-Fv6sPiDOeQ7KA
Story below:
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Craig a No-Show As Senate Reconvenes
By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Larry Craig was a no-show Tuesday as Congress
reconvened after a summer break and it wasn't clear whether he'll return
at all since deciding to resign over his guilty plea in a restroom sex
sting.
Craig, a Republican who has represented Idaho in Congress for 27 years,
announced Saturday that he intends to resign from the Senate on Sept.
30.
His spokesman, Dan Whiting, said Tuesday that Craig was expected to
spend the week in Idaho as the Senate votes on spending bills for
veterans and other programs. Whiting did not rule out Craig returning to
Washington before the end of the month.
Craig gave up his senior positions on the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee and the Appropriations veterans subcommittee last week, at the
request of Senate Republican leaders. The Senate began debating the
veterans spending bill Tuesday.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, senior Republican on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, suggested Craig's GOP colleagues who pressured him
last week to resign should re-examine the facts surrounding his arrest
June 11.
"The more people take a look at the situation, there may well be second
thoughts," Specter, a former prosecutor, said Tuesday. If Craig had not
pleaded guilty in August to a reduced charge and instead demanded a
trial, "I believe he would have been exonerated," Specter said.
Another spokesman for Craig, Sidney Smith, said the senator has no plans
to withdraw his resignation.
"I suppose there's the remote chance but ... the intent is to resign
still, and ensure an orderly transition," Smith said.
Republican Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has not named Craig's successor
and has not said when he will. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, also a Republican, is
considered the frontrunner for the job.
Billy Martin, one of Craig's lawyers, said the senator's arrest in an
undercover police operation at a Minneapolis airport men's room "raises
very serious constitutional questions."
Martin, who represents Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his
dogfighting case, said Craig "has the right to pursue any and all legal
remedies available as he begins the process of trying to clear his good
name."
Craig contended throughout last week he had done nothing wrong and said
his only mistake was pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
Craig has hired a high-powered crisis management team that includes
Martin; communications adviser Judy Smith; Washington attorney Stan
Brand, a former general counsel to the U.S. House, and Minneapolis
attorney Tom Kelly.
Brand, who represented Major League Baseball in the congressional
investigation into steroid use, will handle any Senate Ethics Committee
investigation of Craig, while Kelly will assist the legal case in
Minnesota.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell denied a double standard in how
GOP leaders reacted to Craig's case and the admission in July by Sen.
David Vitter, R-La., that his telephone number showed up in 1999, 2000
and 2001 phone bills of an escort service that federal authorities say
was a prostitution ring.
In Vitter's case, "there have been no charges made," McConnell said,
adding that the alleged wrongdoing occurred before Vitter was a senator.
Craig, by contrast, pleaded guilty to a crime, McConnell said. "The
legal case was, in effect, over. At that point, the question was for the
Republican leadership, what would be our reaction to it," he said.
All three of Craig's adopted children said Tuesday they believe their
father's assertions he is not gay and did nothing to warrant his arrest.
Jay Craig, 33, told The Associated Press that he, his brother, Michael
Craig, 38, and his sister, Shae Howell, 36, spoke candidly with their
father about the June 11 incident.
"Our conclusion was there was no wrongdoing there," Jay Craig said. "We
understood the direction he was taking (by pleading guilty) and there
was nothing illegal that happened there that would even convince
somebody what he was doing was illegal. He was a victim of circumstance,
in the wrong place at the wrong time when this sting operation was going
on."
In a separate interview on Tuesday with ABC's "Good Morning America,"
Michael Craig used similar language about his father.
Larry Craig adopted Michael and his two siblings after marrying their
mother, the former Suzanne Scott, in 1983. Craig has worked in the
Senate to promote adoption
Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman in Washington and John Miller in
Boise contributed to this story.
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Larry Scott --
